Dell Considered PC Business Spinout, Financial Services Disposal

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Dell on Thursday wrote in an SEC filing that it considered other strategic alternatives to going private, including the possibility of selling off its PC or financial services business.

Dell, in a Thursday SEC filing it said was written in response to questions about the process leading to the board of director's approval for Dell's $24 billion-plus leveraged buyout, also detailed the role CEO and largest shareholder Michael Dell played in negotiations and the process behind determining the per-share price of the privatization move.

Michael Dell in August of 2012 told Dell's board of directors he was considering taking the company private, after which the board formed a special committee of four independent directors to evaluate Michael Dell's proposal and possible alternatives.

The special committee, which met over 25 times in addition to having six meetings with other independent directors, met with three different private equity sponsors that were permitted to conduct due diligence and to make proposals to acquire Dell.

Those companies were not permitted to interact with each other and could not reach any agreement with Michael Dell without the special committee's prior consent. Michael Dell also agreed to work in good faith with any bidder for Dell and assured the special committee he would work on any alternative strategies to going private.

Those considered alternatives included, among others, having Dell continue as a public company with no change in business plan, modifying the company's business plan, segmenting its PC business into a separate organization, disposing of its financial services business, accelerating its business transformation with more acquisitions, and either selling to or merging with a strategic buyer, Dell wrote in the SEC filing.

"After this review, which spanned over five months and involved substantial input from the Special Committee’s financial advisers and its management consultant, the Special Committee unanimously concluded that the going private transaction was in the best interests of Dell’s stockholders," Dell wrote.

Doron Kempel says selling hyper-convergence can be challenging for solution providers, but success will come from taking business from competitors that are unprepared or hesitant to embrace the technology.